Give me flawed saints over fake heroes

Faithfulness > Fantasy

This is part of a series about the effects of Radical Christianity on our expectation of what the faithful Christian life is supposed to look like. Read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Scripture gives us a very different picture of faithfulness than the gilded tale of Christianity’s heroes that we discussed last week. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a character in the Bible whose faults and failings are not included as a testament to God’s grace and goodness and seemingly foolhardy determination to bring about His purposes through ordinary people. Scripture is filled with stories of incredible acts of faithfulness, but over and over the Holy Spirit makes a point to also include stories of moral failure.

In faith, Abraham obeys God’s call to leave Ur (Genesis 12:1), but later, in a distinct posture of faithlessness, passes his wife off as his sister… twice (Genesis 12:13; 20:2)!

Moses leads the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt, but is not allowed to enter the promised land because he obscured God’s glory before the people by pridefully and egotistically striking a rock instead of speaking to it as God had instructed him (Numbers 20:12).

David, “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14) seems to sin almost more than he succeeds. He commits adultery with Bathsheba and murders Uriah to cover it up (2 Samuel 11). One of his son’s rapes his half sister and David doesn’t step up to mete out the appropriate punishment (2 Samuel 13). He takes a census in direct defiance of God’s commands (1 Chronicles 21). Let’s just say David’s biography, as published by OT Press probably wouldn’t be selling millions of copies.

Peter, the “rock” upon which Jesus promises to build His church (Matthew 16:18), denies Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion, and later, in the middle of His church building career, has to be corrected by Paul when he mocks the gospel by refusing to eat with Gentile disciples (Galatians 2:11-14).

These are not single sentence asides in the narrative of Scripture. Entire chapters are devoted to telling the unfiltered truth of these grievous mistakes. Without both positive and negative examples our Bibles would be a lot lighter, and a lot less instructive. If Scripture presented only a glowing narrative of the faithful, how lonely would we be, convinced that our own shortcomings were anomalies? And how much dimmer would the grace of God appear without the backdrop of the dysfunctional family of humanity that He sent Jesus to redeem and restore?

When one begins to read American evangelicalism’s best selling narratives alongside Scripture it’s not hard to see that we were given an incomplete story.

Our parents and youth group leaders and pastors and evangelical publishers fell for an incomplete account. They were drawn in by the myths of shining heroes, forgetting that the light of Christ sparkles brightest when it refracts off our imperfections. They wanted the “already” to be all there was, to leave the “not yet” obscured between the pages of the second act. They wanted Christ the Victor and Christ the Conquering King in this messiness east of Eden, so they fashioned Amy the Victor and Corrie the Victor and Jim the Victor and left us feeling inadequate and distinctly unvictorious.

These biographies presented to us the ultimate measure of success and faithfulness in the Christian life - uncomplainingly carrying the gospel to the unreached in the face of extreme suffering, privation, and even death. So, no wonder you feel like a grade A loser while waiting in line at the DMV or snapping at your toddler when they chuck their chicken nuggets over the side of their highchair… again.

But we are not failures. We are simply human, not heroes, just like every other person Christ has redeemed. Faithfulness is possible. Scripture shows us what it looks like. The Holy Spirit provides the power to live it out in the midst of our ordinary lives. So, take a deep breath with me and let your shoulders fall away from your ears. We were never meant to carry the weight of heroism, but to share the easy yoke of Jesus.

Beauty in The Desert
I will always (gently) correct anyone who suggests that the desert doesn’t have seasons. Yes, the trees may not turn fiery red, it may not snow, and we may only find daffodils inside Trader Joe’s, but look at this beauty! The signs of the seasons here in the desert Southwest are just more subtle, but those with eyes to see will find them.

Flowers still bloom in the desert. As my almost-three-year-old sings, "round and round the seasons go."

Beauty in The Work
Writing, like discipleship, is slow, hidden work. We put in the hours, do the work even when we don’t feel like it, and trust God to make things grow. I am excited and humbled that just a few weeks after completing my first book proposal Emma Fulenwider offered to represent me as my literary agent. We’ll be partnering to find a publishing home for the book idea I’ve been working on, and I will be sure to keep you all in the loop!

In pursuit of Beauty,